TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
- AlmostThere
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TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
I never seem to finish trip reports, usually I'm gone before finishing, on another trip and then another, and then I forget most of the details. But I'll give it another try. This one was more memorable than most.
I had my usual posting on a hiking group calendar go from 15 interested to six actual persons who committed to come. Two wasted spaces on a permit for eight. That's the way backpacking with groups seems to work.... A seventh also made it but as she was flying from NY and slightly off our schedule, she got her own permit from a different trailhead to meet us en route. She sounded like a solid hiker and had experience backpacking, and so I agreed to this plan. And if she didn't make it - usually they don't when they attempt to find us this way - she was more than capable of just doing her own thing.
The group met at Wolverton to drop cars there, and waited for our sixth, who was late due to a flat - a text from her as I came up to the park was one of the last ones I got before losing cell service. As she did not appear by the time I'd indicated, we jammed the five of us in a Honda Fit and drove to Roads End. After decanting the contents of the Fit in a campsite at Sheep Creek I drove to the wilderness permit office to get tomorrow's permit. Road work nearly thwarted that effort as it was close to 3:30, closing time for the wilderness office, but I made it. Hiker #6 was already waiting there on a bench as agreed, flat fixed, and followed me back to our campsite.
The following morning, we got an early start up the Bubbs trail. Not an alpine start, but we did our best to get as far as we could before full sun and low elevation could slow us down. Met a ranger on the way up - she was going to Lake Reflection. Since she was the same one who issued my permit the previous day she didn't check it. We crawled up the switchbacks, passed a dead fox (I knew I didn't smell that bad yet!), crossed the bridge at the junction and continued up Avalanche Pass.
Climbing Avalanche Pass in jeans wasn't fun, but one of the group left her hiking pants in her car at Wolverton.... the forecast was great, and the weather stayed fine, so she was ok. Until she traded her pants for someone else's... more on that later.
Met a HST forum member (wish I remembered what his handle is, but unfortunately it was one of the details that disappeared... sorry, friend) and his buddy on the way up the pass. We talked about Golden Trout Wilderness, among other things. But they were going to Sphinx Lakes, and we were hiking through to other places, so the conversation was destined to be short.
We camped at Sphinx Creek, and one of us went up to the first of the Sphinx Lakes to catch a few trout. A small campfire helped keep skeeters at bay. The following morning we finished the pass and descended to Roaring River, where it was hot and not buggy, to camp right next to the bridge. The other site was occupied by a trail crew. We chatted with the guys and spent a little time fishing and exploring. Hiker #7 arrived and brought with her a big surprise. An infected toe.
You might think, if you had no first aid training at all, that it wouldn't be a big deal. She was sort of walking and in pain, but it wasn't such a huge impairment. Unless you consider that the pus around the toenail, the angry red big toe, and all the swelling and the heat coming off the foot means there's more than a localized response. And the following morning it was worse. Draining the abscess around the nail in such an environment is not a good idea, and the infection was clearly traveling. The trail crew leader called dispatch, and after the helicopter was done taking someone with a dislocated hip (!) out of Evolution, it arrived to take our limping hiker out to Ash Mountain helipad.
She received medical care, per her text via an InReach, and is doing fine, not limping for three more days on an advancing infection without antibiotics. She gave our jeans-wearing hiker some better pants to wear and took the jeans out with her on the helicopter.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group was hiking. One of the ladies and I stayed until the helicopter took off (about noon) and then went up the trail after them. We took some nice pics along the way up the canyon, and found them at the campsite I had already chosen from my last trip up Deadman.
to be continued...
I had my usual posting on a hiking group calendar go from 15 interested to six actual persons who committed to come. Two wasted spaces on a permit for eight. That's the way backpacking with groups seems to work.... A seventh also made it but as she was flying from NY and slightly off our schedule, she got her own permit from a different trailhead to meet us en route. She sounded like a solid hiker and had experience backpacking, and so I agreed to this plan. And if she didn't make it - usually they don't when they attempt to find us this way - she was more than capable of just doing her own thing.
The group met at Wolverton to drop cars there, and waited for our sixth, who was late due to a flat - a text from her as I came up to the park was one of the last ones I got before losing cell service. As she did not appear by the time I'd indicated, we jammed the five of us in a Honda Fit and drove to Roads End. After decanting the contents of the Fit in a campsite at Sheep Creek I drove to the wilderness permit office to get tomorrow's permit. Road work nearly thwarted that effort as it was close to 3:30, closing time for the wilderness office, but I made it. Hiker #6 was already waiting there on a bench as agreed, flat fixed, and followed me back to our campsite.
The following morning, we got an early start up the Bubbs trail. Not an alpine start, but we did our best to get as far as we could before full sun and low elevation could slow us down. Met a ranger on the way up - she was going to Lake Reflection. Since she was the same one who issued my permit the previous day she didn't check it. We crawled up the switchbacks, passed a dead fox (I knew I didn't smell that bad yet!), crossed the bridge at the junction and continued up Avalanche Pass.
Climbing Avalanche Pass in jeans wasn't fun, but one of the group left her hiking pants in her car at Wolverton.... the forecast was great, and the weather stayed fine, so she was ok. Until she traded her pants for someone else's... more on that later.
Met a HST forum member (wish I remembered what his handle is, but unfortunately it was one of the details that disappeared... sorry, friend) and his buddy on the way up the pass. We talked about Golden Trout Wilderness, among other things. But they were going to Sphinx Lakes, and we were hiking through to other places, so the conversation was destined to be short.
We camped at Sphinx Creek, and one of us went up to the first of the Sphinx Lakes to catch a few trout. A small campfire helped keep skeeters at bay. The following morning we finished the pass and descended to Roaring River, where it was hot and not buggy, to camp right next to the bridge. The other site was occupied by a trail crew. We chatted with the guys and spent a little time fishing and exploring. Hiker #7 arrived and brought with her a big surprise. An infected toe.
You might think, if you had no first aid training at all, that it wouldn't be a big deal. She was sort of walking and in pain, but it wasn't such a huge impairment. Unless you consider that the pus around the toenail, the angry red big toe, and all the swelling and the heat coming off the foot means there's more than a localized response. And the following morning it was worse. Draining the abscess around the nail in such an environment is not a good idea, and the infection was clearly traveling. The trail crew leader called dispatch, and after the helicopter was done taking someone with a dislocated hip (!) out of Evolution, it arrived to take our limping hiker out to Ash Mountain helipad.
She received medical care, per her text via an InReach, and is doing fine, not limping for three more days on an advancing infection without antibiotics. She gave our jeans-wearing hiker some better pants to wear and took the jeans out with her on the helicopter.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group was hiking. One of the ladies and I stayed until the helicopter took off (about noon) and then went up the trail after them. We took some nice pics along the way up the canyon, and found them at the campsite I had already chosen from my last trip up Deadman.
to be continued...
Last edited by AlmostThere on Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:28 pm, edited 4 times in total.
- AlmostThere
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Re: TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
The campsite in Deadman turned out to be the night we had a great sunset.
Unfortunately I only had a phone. Fortunately it was a brilliant sunset.
We worried a little as it was overcast and we were tackling the pass the following morning. However, it was gorgeous weather same as yesterday.
The meadows higher in the canyon were penstemon fields.
The trail became less maintained the higher we went. The park crews log trails, but I haven't seen any evidence of tread work up here.
Unfortunately I only had a phone. Fortunately it was a brilliant sunset.
We worried a little as it was overcast and we were tackling the pass the following morning. However, it was gorgeous weather same as yesterday.
The meadows higher in the canyon were penstemon fields.
The trail became less maintained the higher we went. The park crews log trails, but I haven't seen any evidence of tread work up here.
- AlmostThere
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Re: TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
We took our time climbing. Everyone loved the flower show in the canyon. Some were concerned about all the snow, but other than a single patch over the trail, it was mostly gone on Elizabeth. There were significant patches around the amphitheater and a cornice (or so it seemed) over on Horn Col/Lonely Pass.
But, while we were standing on the pass, two backpackers crossed below us, and headed off to the right toward Coppermine.... Was that anyone here, perhaps? We saw your prints over in the Tablelands the following day, methinks....
Elizabeth comes into view as you achieve that last half mile or so. We celebrated for a bit and moved down the switchbacks on the south side, which I didn't care for the first time and are in no better shape than they were before... eroding and crumbling and steep. I felt we should try for Lonely Lake from the other side, but that thin line of snow was concerning, and we had a newbie to cross country travel. So we went down the trail and then up the slab to Pterodactyl instead of traversing. Which was fine. Those are some lovely slabs and ramps full of flower patches. The trail, of course, is hardly there in places and needs a lot of work....
Coming down the "trail" on the south side of the pass
Our newbie coming up the slab like a pro.
Pterodactyl pano
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Re: TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
The mossies were worse up high than expected. We camped short of our goal, because it was getting later in the day and we found a spring.
The following morning we got an early start. Headed up the ridge ahead of us, to see what we could see.
I believe this little tarn is the one at the top of Tableland Pass
Big Bird Lake wasn't visible but we saw the two littler lakes above it.
It isn't but a few miles to the lake at the edge of Table Meadow; we could see it in the distance. Still, we took our time, looking at flowers and marmots.
As we got to the lake, I saw a marmot in a meadow. We were quite close to it, as we were trying to figure out if it was still alive. Never seen a dead one before (except on Tioga Rd, as roadkill ) but maybe this was a trip for firsts -- first group member sent off in a helicopter, first dead fox in the trail, now this?
Of course I didn't get the picture of the marmot yanking its head up and hightailing it for the hills. One of us fell down in shock. He had his little head stuffed in a hole, probably eating roots or something. He was sprawled flat, not moving at all, right up until we were just a few feet away - and I wouldn't put it past one of the little jerks to play dead just to shock us...
The Lake of the Undead Marmot
The following morning we got an early start. Headed up the ridge ahead of us, to see what we could see.
I believe this little tarn is the one at the top of Tableland Pass
Big Bird Lake wasn't visible but we saw the two littler lakes above it.
It isn't but a few miles to the lake at the edge of Table Meadow; we could see it in the distance. Still, we took our time, looking at flowers and marmots.
As we got to the lake, I saw a marmot in a meadow. We were quite close to it, as we were trying to figure out if it was still alive. Never seen a dead one before (except on Tioga Rd, as roadkill ) but maybe this was a trip for firsts -- first group member sent off in a helicopter, first dead fox in the trail, now this?
Of course I didn't get the picture of the marmot yanking its head up and hightailing it for the hills. One of us fell down in shock. He had his little head stuffed in a hole, probably eating roots or something. He was sprawled flat, not moving at all, right up until we were just a few feet away - and I wouldn't put it past one of the little jerks to play dead just to shock us...
The Lake of the Undead Marmot
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Re: TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
We went down the slab to Table Meadows and encountered the beginnings (one of them, I think the actual headwaters are a different stream) of the Marble Fork of the Kaweah. I've seen more water in it but most of the snow around the meadows is gone.
It was a straightforward trip back to trail - and the lower we got, the hotter it was, the more it felt like that light backpack weighed a ton. Almost no food left and my pack probably weighed 23 lbs. But heat will zap you.
We started to encounter huge groups of scouts, couples, day hikers by the dozen, and then there was Towel Guy, carrying a blue hand towel and nothing else. I felt bad for him. We were on the trail between the last lake and the Watchtower, and in a couple of places the rocks make it interestingly precarious stepping down - his flat-soled loafer shot out from under him and down he went, falling on his hip. He got up before I reached him. I asked him if he was okay, and he shrugged it off, but later I saw him hiking while holding his hip as we leapfrogged him down the trail, taking breaks at different intervals. Evidently he had a friend who was carrying the water but hiking half a mile ahead. The friend wasn't with him when he nearly fell off the trail.
We reached the trailhead and everyone made sure to get contact information. I went back to Roads End with two ladies who'd left vehicles there. My friend K and I stayed in Sentinel Campground, as it had been a marathon last day, making up miles that we didn't manage the day before - 12 miles and half of them in the Tablelands - and driving while tired on those roads didn't appeal. Stood in a long, long line for a hot shower at Cedar Grove - four showers are being renovated, and there were a lot of people waiting. Had ice cream bars and a cold one while we were waiting. In camp we planned a future fishing trip and talked about trips we'd been on, and retired to swelter -- 80F at 10 pm?? -- until we fell asleep.
I returned home to piles of mail and paperwork, and to attempt to readjust to daily life at the office. One of the better trips with a hiking group that I've had, actually, despite the helicopter.... We'll hike together again.
It was a straightforward trip back to trail - and the lower we got, the hotter it was, the more it felt like that light backpack weighed a ton. Almost no food left and my pack probably weighed 23 lbs. But heat will zap you.
We started to encounter huge groups of scouts, couples, day hikers by the dozen, and then there was Towel Guy, carrying a blue hand towel and nothing else. I felt bad for him. We were on the trail between the last lake and the Watchtower, and in a couple of places the rocks make it interestingly precarious stepping down - his flat-soled loafer shot out from under him and down he went, falling on his hip. He got up before I reached him. I asked him if he was okay, and he shrugged it off, but later I saw him hiking while holding his hip as we leapfrogged him down the trail, taking breaks at different intervals. Evidently he had a friend who was carrying the water but hiking half a mile ahead. The friend wasn't with him when he nearly fell off the trail.
We reached the trailhead and everyone made sure to get contact information. I went back to Roads End with two ladies who'd left vehicles there. My friend K and I stayed in Sentinel Campground, as it had been a marathon last day, making up miles that we didn't manage the day before - 12 miles and half of them in the Tablelands - and driving while tired on those roads didn't appeal. Stood in a long, long line for a hot shower at Cedar Grove - four showers are being renovated, and there were a lot of people waiting. Had ice cream bars and a cold one while we were waiting. In camp we planned a future fishing trip and talked about trips we'd been on, and retired to swelter -- 80F at 10 pm?? -- until we fell asleep.
I returned home to piles of mail and paperwork, and to attempt to readjust to daily life at the office. One of the better trips with a hiking group that I've had, actually, despite the helicopter.... We'll hike together again.
- maverick
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Re: TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
Thank you for the wonderful TR and pictures! You and "maiathebee" overlapped on your trips, bringing back some beautiful wildflower photos back.
Thankfully you were there for your hiker with the infected toe, otherwise who knows when she would have tried to get help, with the consequences of loosing a toe, or worse.
Thankfully you were there for your hiker with the infected toe, otherwise who knows when she would have tried to get help, with the consequences of loosing a toe, or worse.
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer
I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.
Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.
Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
- rightstar76
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Re: TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
AT, it takes great leadership to pull a trip off like that especially with people you've never met. And with flat tires and infected toes! Thank you for sharing your adventures and beautiful pictures.
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Re: TR: Avalanche/Deadman/Elizabeth/Wolverton 7/3 - 7/7
Thanks for that. That route was the first backpack trip I ever took (in reverse). It was in 1980 and I haven't been back. Thanks for the trip down the memory trail. Love those vistas...
Is the grave marker still there in Deadman Canyon?
Is the grave marker still there in Deadman Canyon?